Group 5 - The Confucian Tradition and New Cultural Influences; Neo-Confucianism and The Return of Christianity (738-741)

The Confucian Tradition and New Cultural Influences

Intro:
New Confucianism was brought by the scholar Zhu Xi and demographic and urban growth encouraged a vibrant popular culture in China. Also the missionaries reintroduced Roman Catholic Christianity to China.

Neo-Confucianism and Pulp Fiction
Intro:
Imperial sponsorship meant a support for Confucian tradition. Zhu Xi combined the values of Confucius and of Buddhist philosophy.

Confucian Education:

• Min and Qing emperors supported educational programs by funding the Hanlin Academy where students could study for the civil service examination.
• They encouraged the cultivation of Confucian values. Ming Emperor Yongle sponsored the publishin of the Yongle Encyclopedia because he wanted emphasize Chinese Culture and put all their philosophies in a combined book.

Popular Culture:

• Many urban people didn't have advanced education and knew close to nothing about Confucius.
• Many of these people were literate merchants who wanted entertainment and a intellectual diversion so they turned to novels.

Popular Novels:

• Although Confucian Scholars thought novels were crude fiction the urban residents loved to read these fast paced novels.
• Some popular novels offered great reflections of the world and impacted the people who read them.
• For instance The Romance of the Three Kingdoms which explored the politics after the collapse of the Han Dynasty.
• Journey to the West was a popular novel which talked about eh Buddhist Monk Xuanzang jouney to India. His companion in the book was a magical monkey.

The Return of Christianity to China
Intro:
Nestorian Christians had established churches and monasteries in China as early as the 7th century C.E., and Roman Catholic communities were important in Chinese commercial centers during Yuan dynasty. After outbreak of plague and collapse of Yuan dynasty in 14th century, Christianity disappeared from China. When Roman Catholic missionaries returned in 16th century, they had to start from scratch in their efforts to win converts and establish a Christian community.

Matteo Ricci: (1552-1610)

• Italian Jesuit (most important missionaries)
• Founder of mission to China
• His goal was to convert China to Christianity beginning with the Ming emperor Wanli
• He was a polished diplomat and became a popular figure at the Ming Court
• Upon his arrival at Macau in 1582, Ricci was studying the Chinese language and the Confucian classics
• By the time he first went to Beijing and visited the imperial court in 1601, he was able to write the Chinese that he had learned and he was also able to converse fluently with Confucian scholars
• Because Ricci and his colleagues had an advanced education in mathematics and astronomy, they were able to correct Chinese calendars that miscalculated solar eclipses
• Jesuits also prepared maps of the world - with China placed diplomatically at the center - on the basis of geographic knowledge that the Europeans had gained during their voyages through the world's seas
• Jesuits made finely ground glass prisms which became popular because of their refraction of sunlight into its component parts
• Most popular mechanical devices were the devices that Chinese called "self-ringing bells" which were mechanical clocks that kept accurate time, chimed the hours, and even struck the quarter hours as well

Confucianism and Christianity

• Again, the Jesuits' main goal was to win converts
• They portrayed Christianity as a faith that was very similar to Chinese cultural traditions
• Ricci wrote a treatise entitled The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven in which he argued that the doctrines of Confucias and Jesus were very similar
• According to Ricci, neo-Confucian scholars altered Confucius's own teachings, so adoption of Christianity by Chinese would represent a return to a more pure and original Confucianism
• Jesuits also held religious services in Chinese language and allowed converts to continue the time-honored practice of honoring their ancestors
• Jesuits ended up attracting very few converts in China
• The Chinese hesitated to adopt Christianity partly because of its exclusivity: for centuries, Chinese had honored Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism at the same time and like Islam, though, Christianity claimed to be the only true religion, so the conversion implied that Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism were all inferior and it was a proposition most Chinese were unwilling to accept

End of the Jesuit Mission

• Roman Catholic mission in China came to an end because of squabbles between Jesuits and members of Franciscan and Dominican orders, who also sought converts in China
• Franciscans and Dominicans were jealous of Jesuits' presence at imperial court so they both complained to the pope about their rival's tolerance of ancestor veneration and willingness to conduct Chinese-language services
• The pope sided with the critics and he later issued several proclamations ordering missionaries in China to put down their ancestor veneration and conduct services according to European standards
• Emperor Kangxi ordered an end to preaching of Christianity in China and by mid-18th century, the Roman Catholic mission came to an end
• Although the Roman Catholic mission to China didn't attract large numbers of Chinese converts, it did have important cultural effects
• Jesuits made European science and technology known in China and they made China known in Europe by sending them writings describing China as an orderly and rational society
• Confucian civil service system attracted attention of European rulers, who began to design their own civil service bureaucracies in the 18th century
• Enlightenment philosophers sought alternatives to Christianity as the foundation for ethics and morality